Posts Tagged ‘Whole 30’

Fortunately, I was consoled by this shipment of rich, buttery sweetness:

I’m a pretty huge fan of iHerb (www.iherb.com). They carry a huge stock of supplement/hard to find “health foods,” their prices are almost always lower than actual stores, and they ship for free on orders over $20. Here, I found coconut butter for almost half the price that they were at our grocery store. Yes, I bought two. Don’t judge me. Also, if you’re a first-time customer, you can receive $5 off with the promo code: SOD407 . They also send you free samples of stuff with your shipment, which is how I discovered a pretty tasty, Whole 30-condoned hot cocoa called CocaoCeps (you can search for it on the site; wordpress won’t let me link it).

But enough about food. The training. I was actually very happy with today’s squats. I’ve received a lot of tips from lifters far more experienced than I about the importance of a full squat, but today was the first time that really clicked for me. I’m definitely squatting deeper than I ever used to, but sometimes I’m still a little high. I’m reaching the point where I can feel the difference though. When I hit the optimal depth, the lift feels significantly easier– as if there were 25 fewer pounds on my back. It’s funny… because my brain is afraid of dropping the full depth as if that would make the lift harder, but in actuality (as the Archeologist explained to me today), reaching that bottom position allows you to engage the proper muscle groups, which 1) propels you out of the hole faster/stronger, and 2) protects you from injury (aka tipping heavy, above-bodyweight loads onto smaller, ill-prepared muscles).

It’s a mind game. One I lose frequently. If I’m not “scared” before I lower myself into the lift, I can hit the bottom position just fine. If I psych myself out, I start back up too soon and end up making the lift harder on myself. As one of my favorite, curmudgeonly Marines reminds me, “Don’t be a pussy.” I think this means that I’m going to have to start asking for a spotter for all my work sets… It’s something I’ve avoided if I’m fairly confident that I can survive the load because usually people are busy with their own things at the gym… but having spotters there gives me the confidence to engage the full range of motion. So… apologies to people who might be around when I’m squatting now. 🙂

Despite the good news on the squat, I’m ticked off about my press. I broke my plateau last week, managing 62.5 for 3 sets of 5. This week I failed after two reps with 65, and only managed four reps a set for 62.5. I know that women often struggle with the press… but this is now the third time I’ve stalled out at this weight, and I want to do something about it. I’m going to look into more supplementary work for shoulders and incorporating shoulder movements into my workouts… I just don’t want to overtrain the muscle group either.

Anyway… it’s a reminder that I’m nearing the end of this linear progression. My deadlifts are almost at my goal of 200lbs. I think my bench still has a tiny bit of room to grow, and we’ll see about those power cleans… but the squat and press are piddling out pretty damn quickly… though I’m hoping I’ll at least be able to break this old plateau. I’ll have to do something thinking about what comes next. For now though.. a trip to Wegman’s. One can’t live off coconut butter alone!

Hello, friends! I suppose I’m overdue for an update– on food, training, and life in general.

It’s officially been a week since I stopped by “Whole 14” cleanse in attempt to diagnose my “trigger foods” for my IBS symptoms. Thus far, I feel good. I’ve reintroduced my post-workout shake, and I’m happy to report that my recovery feels much better now. I was very worried on day one because my stomach rebelled after the protein shake. On day two, I had slightly lesser symptoms, and by day three, I was tolerating it all right. I’m also thrilled to announce that I’ve also reintegrated peanut butter (by the heaping spoonful) and regret nothing. The thing is… I can feel that my body operates less “smoothly” with these “irritants,” but they’re a mild evil compared to life before and I do limit myself to one protein shake a day– most of my protein should still come from whole food sources. In terms of other whole foods, I’m fairly certain that soybeans (as in the dried edamame beanpods on which I snacked by the cupful) give me notable distress, and I should cut those from my diet. I’m not sure about soy products though– such as soy sauce or soy additives in foods… I’ll have to experiment more there.

I’m a little puzzled by my strength development. The other day, the Mean Machine pulled up an old document that our gym started once-upon-a-time (when we were little more than a handful of members, two mismatched rowers, and an odd assortment of jury rigged pullup bars). I don’t even remember entering my numbers, but apparently at some point we documented our lifts. This must have been upwards of nine months ago. Since then, my deadlift has increased by 70 lbs, my press and bench both by about 20. My back squat, however, has only risen ten lbs. That’s… frustrating, to say the least– especially because the squat is so vital for just about everything we do in CrossFit. I know a lot of my limitations in the squat has to do with my hip mobility. I can feel that my left hip is dramatically tighter than my right and I rise unevenly from the bottom of the squat. I’ve been trying to stretch more, but it seems that imbalance follows me regardless of however much agonizing bendyness I force into my stiff little limbs.

I’ve looked up all the hip videos on mobility WOD… and I’ve tried to incorporate them into my days, but honestly my left hip just seems permanently inflexible. If anyone has any particularly creative suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

A thought on food intolerance though… I’m fairly certain that my stomach was reacting poorly to the protein shakes for the first couple of days and needed to remember how to digest whey in its concentrated form– or whatever other additives are in my chosen powder. Similarly, I’m not much of a drinker. The other night, we went out to commemorate a friend’s graduation/send her off to her new life in Kentucky. I had… more shots than I’m accustomed to, and I felt awful for the next two days. My headache has only just dissipated today. When I studied abroad in England, during my sophomore year in college, I could take eight shots a night and feel fine the next morning– granted, I was a slightly larger Jo (by about 30 lbs) back then, but still… I’m torn between the fact that… yes, our bodies operate better and “optimally” on these superclean diets, but unless you intend to eat so very strictly for the rest of your life, you’re not going to be able to avoid all these “contaminants” and you’ve perhaps made yourself more vulnerable in those moments. Though this may only apply to people with hypersensitive (e.g. bitchy) digestive systems such as myself.

Workouts these past few days have been good, but nothing worth reporting. I did, however, try a WOD this morning that I’d like to share. After working on Snatches (from the floor) and two-position squat cleans, I did “Lars”:

5 rounds for time:

1 round =

– sandbag carry uphill 100 m

– 10 sandbag squats behind head

– sandbag carry downhill 100m

– 10 burpees

our 100m path is not on a hill, but the workout was plenty hellish without. I was ambitious for the first two rounds and started with a 30lb sandbag. After 400m of awkward limping, though, I went to 20lbs. Though I’m thrilled that the box actually has sandbags now, our sandbags are filled with medballs rather than sand. They make for awkward carrying devices. If my shoulders were at all broader, I might be able to balance the bags across them, but my options are to either hold the bag against my back (and strain my triceps the whole way) or sling the ball over a single waifish shoulder. The latter option allows me to run faster, but those of us with girl-parts know that… weighted rubber items jouncing against those girl-parts as you run make for an unpleasant experience.*

[*I can’t imagine how that would feel for ladies with weighted items permanently implanted in their girl parts]**

[**No disrespect to said ladies– … though, ow]

Yesterday, I went on my first-ever tubing adventure. Very fortuitously, one of our gym members is a bit of a tubing… enthusiast? A tubiast? Anyway… he has a stash of inner tubes and has just about memorized all the dips and curves in the river’s current. It was a lovely… lovely time… just sitting outdoors, lazing down the river, chatting with friends. I whine about it a lot, so you’ll have to indulge me if you’ve heard this rant before: I love what I study… I love teaching, I believe in the potential of language, I’m invigorated by my research, and I could never live without the catharsis of my writing… but I loathe how much of it confines me to a desk (or, on lazy days, a couch), in front of a computer. It was unspeakably wonderful to be outside, in fantastic company, and unwired. What’s even better… after I returned home, I managed to fill in the scene in my novel*** with which I’ve been struggling for a while. I take this as a sign that “unplugging” ourselves from the world is actually beneficial to productivity and general mental well-being. One of my most frustrating traits (to myself and those around me) is that I feel like I should be working all the time… I feel obligated to work all the time. I very, very rarely just sit in front of the tv because I feel as if I’m wasting time. But time spent outside in the company of good friends feels so very worthwhile that it can even make my deadlines seem trivial. Thank you to good friends for reminding me to enjoy life.

[***About the novel: I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but I finished my 260+ paged manuscript for my MFA thesis. However, the manuscript is still a few steps away from anything I’d term a “novel.” In addition to my independent study work for my English rhetoric PhD this summer, I hope to tweak my manuscript into something more worthwhile…]

I know we’ve had our ups and downs since I first discovered you during my misguided P90x years. We’ve been on again and off again and on again. I’ve dabbled with at least 6 different brands until I at last found one that was 1) affordable and 2) gentle on my stomach. And after all that effort, I’ve abandoned you for the past two weeks in pursuit of my Whole 14. I’m so, so, so very sorry. Please come back to my life.

Yours,

Jo

—

Okay, facetiousness aside… I’m done with my Whole 14! 😀 And, even though I said peanut butter would be the first thing on my reintroduction list, today I went straight for the protein shake. I know that’s not the wisest decision because whey powders contain a crapton* of ingredients, but I couldn’t resist.

[*Crapton: Approximately 2,000 crappounds or 100 cubic crapfeet.]

Also, I feel better after the protein shake. Part of it must be placebo-esque, but… whereas I’ve felt worn down a couple hours after each workout for the past two weeks, I felt fine with my usual recovery drink. Today’s workout, by the way, was lovely. It was definitely a long-and-slow day… I’m really starting to embrace these strength-focus days when I can just kind of move at my own pace and prepare myself before each lift.

Today:

Back Squat 3×5

Should Press 3×5 (PR!) I finally broke past that plateau with which I’ve been struggling for the past… forever

Pull ups, strict: 7, 7, 7 (Winner!)

And then a WOD that I took at my own pace…

7 Rounds:

100 ft Farmer’s walk (1.5 pd in each hand)

10 box jumps (20″)

10 burpees (I’m starting to get so slow at these after not doing them for a long time…)

Oh, I suppose if you’ve been paying extra close attention, you might notice that I just squatted on my “rest” day. I’m experimenting with resetting my schedule so that I squat on wednesdays and saturdays now because the box has the occasional gymnastics/striking class on Thursdays, and now we plan on playing CrossFit dodgeball (!!! 😀 !!!), so I’m hoping that this schedule might better accommodate more CrossFit extracurriculars 🙂

Happy July 4th to all. I bitch about the problems in America as much as the next person, but honestly, I’ve seen what my parents went through to earn their citizenships here so that I could have opportunities they didn’t have in their home country. There’s a lot of dumb shit in the land of privilege, but how fortunate are we to have those privileges? And how absurd is it that we’re so protected, so safe, that so many of us can walk around ignorant of the men and women who’ve dedicated their lives to ensuring those privileges?

So, I’ve reached the final day of my “Whole 14,” and I thank you all for bearing with me as I whined about my digestive dilemmas. The verdict? I’m glad I did it. There were some definite benefits to eating cleanly “paleo.” As I mentioned before, I slept better than I have in years. Though I still experienced (disappointingly) the occasional IBS symptoms, they were dramatically reduced and much more infrequent. I didn’t experience sugar highs or crashes (at least not after those initial four days of awful withdrawal). Also, I felt satiated after meals. I stayed full for a lot longer, and when I felt hungry, my blood sugar didn’t swing (so no dizziness, no irritability– I’m usually irreducibly hAngry when I’m hungry… which is also usually too frequent). The downside is that my recovery never made it back up from what it used to be, which baffles me. If I feel so much better in so many other ways, why does my body struggle to repair itself now? Other inconveniences: I was never particularly handy in the kitchen to begin with, so I spend way too much of my time cooking. And, really, I don’t see this as a fully sustainable lifestyle for me. I’d like to be able to go out and have a few drinks with friends (though I know that alcohol aggravates my symptoms, but I make concessions anyway…); I’d like to enjoy meals out without worrying about all the ingredients, etc… I also need to be able to buy cheaper… not-grass-fed-everything. A grad student’s salary doesn’t quite support a paleo pantry. Nevertheless, there are a few things from this experiment that I would like to keep: 1) COCONUT BUTTER. 2) fewer sweetened things. I don’t think I’ll abandon sweeteners altogether, but I like not getting sugar cravings… and not being shaky when I’m hungry… but I wonder if I can keep the cravings at bay if I reintroduce a few sweetened things? I guess we’ll find out. 3) Less caffeine. I’m curious as to whether or not caffeine screws with my stomach… I intend to try something like a half-caff americano when I start back up to see… but I also like not needing that afternoon cup anymore.

Unfortunately, my strength progression has definitely slowed, and I’m hoping it will revive with the reintroduction of (hopefully) most foods. I’m hoping that I can find the worst triggers and eliminate those while not adhering to nearly so rigid a set of guidelines.

Anyway, yesterday’s deadlifts were a little shakey– 5 at 175lbs (~1.75x bodyweight). I’m going to bump it up another 5 for next week, but I’m nervous. My grip is actually my limiting factor on my deadlifts. With 175, by the time I stand, my hands are already half un-clenched, and from there it slips to the ground. I intend to incorporate more farmer’s walks into my supplementary work and hopefully that’ll help.

This morning, I woke with a bit of extra energy, so I played around with my new homemade sandbag:

The duffel bag is bigger than I’d like it to be, so I’ve ordered some rope from Amazon and I hope to tie off the extra fabric at the end so the garbage bags/mulch don’t slide around as much. To christen my new toy, I started this morning with Ross Training’s 25 Repetition Roulette:

1 burpee

clean sandbag to shoulders

press bag overhead

overhead lunge with each leg.

Repeat for 25 total reps. Quick and simple, but effective. I like the amorphousness of the bag and how it forces you to adapt to the shifting weight.

Afterwards, I also did ten reps of my own invented dumbbell complex. It’s basically a renegade row with a squat clean thruster afterwards. So the full movement is:

Push up (with hands on dumbbells– for me this was 25lbs)

“Row” (pull the dumbell up) with your left arm

Push up

Right-arm row

Pushup

Squat clean the dumbbells to your shoulders

Thruster the weights overhead

That’s one rep. I only did ten, but that was enough for a quick morning workout.

In direct contrast to my stunning productivity yesterday, I have achieved close to nothing today. So… I should probably get on that before tonight’s activities. Happy Tuesday, all.

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m examining the gym as social/rhetorical space in my PhD work, and now and then I come across something I think worth sharing with my indulgent blog-readers. If this sounds like too much academic fluff, I apologize. What I’ll be looking at in my dissertation is the gym (particularly gyms that market “functional fitneess”– so CrossFit-esque though not necessarily strictly CrossFit) as a social space. And I want to examine how rhetorical practices (verbal and nonverbal) influence physical practices and vise versa, as well as how cultural context impacts all of the above. It’s all very muddled right now, but I’m excited about it because– not only is it something that fascinates me endlessly– it’s very unexamined territory right now, and thus an invigorating place to be in one’s studies. The gym’s such an interesting space because inhabits a borderland between “public” and “private,” and– even more interesting–it’s where we go to change our bodies, for whatever number of reasons… but those changes reflect and enact any number of personal and societal ideals.

Anyway, there’s very little work done on the gym as social space– particularly fitness facilities. Sports theory has focused largely on professional (or collegiate) sports… some of the material I’ve found has been entirely useless while others have presented fascinating kernels of insight without further exploration. One article I read, authored by an English professor/spinning instructor meditated on the vocabulary used by different fitness instructors in their training methodology. How the harsher, drill-instructor types seemed only to recruit already-fit clients. Anyway… she pointed out how much of fitness refers to itself as punishment– how many personal trainers tell you to “work off” the muffin you had this morning, or– even worse– to “earn” the pumpkin pie you’ll eat at Thanksgiving, as if you’re being castigated for a predicted crime. While I’m proud to say that CrossFit eschews much of this (I’ve heard no mention of burning off your morning donuts in the box), it has definitely embraced exercise-as-punishment– or rather, exercise should hurt. However facetiously, this is a sport that’s made a mascot out of rhabdomyolysis.

Another fascinating aspect of studying CrossFit for me is that it’s still an emergent sport. It’s still finding its footing, still in the process of becoming whatever it is it wants to be. I see a lot of CrossFit now taking steps towards caution– more advice about smarter programming, patient training, and fewer glamor shots of ripped hands. Nevertheless, we have many years of that “no pain, no gain” philosophy to counteract. A lot of what I see on the CrossFit forums these days is veteran, more experienced athletes counseling new enthusiasts about moderation. Not every day has to be a metcon, not every workout needs to leave you an incoherent puddle. But is anyone surprised that CrossFit has perpetuated this athletic masochism? We have t-shirts like “Fran Happened” — featuring bloodied palms from 4 minutes of delirious exertion. We’ve adopted slang such as “meeting pukie” as if exhausting yourself to the point that your body rebels is a rite of passage.

Don’t get me wrong, I love in intensity. I’ve written several odes to that meditative state you hit in a particularly grueling workout, but I’m glad CrossFit is beginning to draw the line between pushing your limits and brazenly crashing through them. CrossFit already attracts a certain type– people eager willing to throw themselves through strength programs followed by all-out-intensity rounds of box jumps and thrusters and wall balls. 5 days a week. Perhaps sometimes what we need to reinforce sometimes is not the “pain” but the healing. After all– that’s how we build our strength, right? You get stronger not when your muscles are torn apart, but as they repair.

There’s Jo’s thought of the day.

As for my “Whole 14” challenge, it’s going by quicker than I thought. Soon, I’ll be reintroducing peanuts, then soy, then protein powders and then eventually I work my way through the other banned ingredients to test my individual tolerance. As to how I feel? It’s day twelve and… meh. The sugar cravings are gone, which I appreciate, though I don’t doubt they’ll come back. I just don’t think I’ll avoid all sweeteners everywhere forever… they’re everywhere, and they’re tasty on occasion. My digestive disturbances are significantly fewer and further between. Unfortunately, they’re not altogether absent. I suppose it would’ve been too naive to hope for one of those paleo “transformation” stories where this lifestyle cured me of a lifetime of suffering. Not quite so much. I do feel better–much, much better, but I still have to accept the fact that my genetics suck and my digestive system may always hate me a little bit. But my recovery still sucks. I’m still sore-ish, and really before this I’d long moved past the perpetual soreness you feel upon starting a CrossFit regimen. The recovery drink is probably a crutch and my dependence on it might entirely be placebo effect… but at least it was working? I hope it’s not what was irritating my stomach, but I suppose we’ll found out later in the week.

No really excited WODs to post about today. Yesterday, I worked on O-lift technique– definitely light weights. Today, I did squats (3 week reset), bench (still going up– *knock on wood*), and then I tried an actually fun new exercise: lateral sled drag. Basically, you hook a sled up to your ankles and walk sideways to work your adductor/abductors (I never remember which one’s which). 6 x 20 yards.

Bad news, guys. I’ve discovered crack. Except it’s more delicious than crack. And a hell of a lot more expensive than crack. But it’s better. I promise. Try it– all the cool paleo kids are doing it:

Allow me to introduce you to coconut BUTTER:

This, my friends, is very different from coconut oil. Coconut oil makes things tasty when you fry/roast/otherwise cook with coconut oil. Coconut butter tastes like ecstasy on a spoon. As in I’ve been doing nothing but eating spoonfuls since I bought this thing…

I’ve been dying to try coconut butter since I learned of its existence, but it’s actually kind of hard to find in State College. The grocery stores carry coconut oil, but definitely not coconut butter. I finally ventured out to a specialty store called Nature’s Pantry, whereupon I balked at the $15 pricetag. Nevertheless, my curiosity got the better of me and….

A warning: sometimes the oil will separate from the coconut flesh (this is what makes it coconut butter rather than just coconut oil)… it’s helpful to heat up the jar and give it a good stir before your first use. The oil is rather tasteless… the flesh is beautifully rich and has this delicate, ambrosial sweetness. Seriously, try it.

Actually, the taste reminds me a lot of Chinese bo lo buns (or pineapple buns). There’s no pineapple in them. The name comes from the look of the outer shell, which I suppose… if you squinted and tilted your head… might sort of kind of resemble a pineapple. But the variety I ate when I was a child always had a coconut filling. I assume it must have been made with coconut butter, though I didn’t know what it was at the time.

Let’s back up a few steps. I’ve mentioned that I’m still rather suspect of certain aspects of the paleo philosophy– and I am… and I’m very eager to reintroduce what I consider “real foods” back into my diet (like peanuts and other legumes) out of curiosity as to whether or not I’m actually intolerant of these foods. I like the principle behind “Paleo 2.0” better than “Paleo 1.0.” To the best of my understanding, Paleo 1.0, started by Dr. Cordain, is the Paleo lifestyle that coined the namesake “paleolithic”– Paleo 1.0 based a lot of its reasoning behind what our “paleolithic ancestors” ate in a time when mankind was untouched by modern disease. There are so… so many holes to poke in this argument– such as the technological developments we’ve made that have improved quality of life since then, the fact that a lot of even “paleo” foods don’t make sense in an imitation of the “paleo” lifestyle (how many cavemen went around raiding chickens’ nests for their 5-6 egg omelet every morning?). It seemingly operates under the assumption that we can’t actually develop things that are better for our health than what we were “built” to consume… and even then we’re not taking into account the huge variances of what individuals consumed based on locality, etc. Paleo 2.0 is more flexible and more or less releases its hold on ancestral roots and instead focuses on “anti-inflammatory” foods. It looks to maximize the nutrients you consume and your ability process them. That said, at Nature’s Pantry, my shopping buddy pointed out to me that most paleo individuals who consume enormous amounts of coconut products probably don’t hail from regions ripe with coconuts. But my ancestors do, so ha. Though I really don’t give a shit what paleolithic man ate and don’t think it should affect my diet in the slightest, it sort of entertains me that– in Taiwan, where almost my entire family still lives, the streets are lined with coconut trees. You can see workers sawing down and collecting the fruit from my aunt and uncles’ window. So… assuming my ancestors had the tools to crack open a coconut, they probably had a diet with coconut aplenty. And tons of tropical fruit. And heaping amounts of fresh seafood. Come to think of it, my ancestors had a badass dinner table.

Anyway, today I wound up at the gym at kind of an unusual time and there was apparently a special kid’s course going on, so I tried to make do with little space/equipment. Started with power cleans:

5 sets of 3 reps @ 75lbs. The first set was ugly. The others went better, which probably means inadequate warmup. I’m developing a weird tweak in my left forearm though that seizes up when I lower the bar… (which meant that I dropped it obnoxiously after every rep today)… I would try to roll it out except I literally don’t feel it unless I’m lowering the bar from my shoulders to below the hip– and only when it’s above 65lbs or so. I wonder if it’s a muscle problem at all?

Ring dips: 4,4,4,2,2

Then a few quick sprints to round out the day.

I wanted to do the box’s WOD for the day, but I suppose I’ll reserve it for another time:

4 rounds for time

400m run

5 power cleans (95/65)

10 shoulder-to-overhead (95/65).

Sounds like a fun time, right? But I didn’t feel right doing it with the kid’s class going on, and I probably shouldn’t aggravate my forearm anyway.

A friend’s in town and I’ve been forewarned of impending festivities so I should probably try to get some work done before then. Also, I have to collect a belated birthday gift from a friend– fillet mignon, not kidding. I love that I’m so predictable that my friends give me gifts in the form of animal flesh. Would you believe that I once dated a militant vegan and subsequently was vegetarian for a couple years of my life? Here’s a tip: don’t go vegan/vegetarian for your significant other. You will find yourself eating revenge burgers at In ‘n Out.

Well, I guess we’re on Day 9 of my “Whole 14” diet challenge. A strange hiccup. Sometime between yesterday and this morning, I experienced a resurge of my IBS symptoms… to be fair, they were milder than they usually are and I feel relatively safe now, but I can’t figure out what must have triggered it. I don’t think I ate anything different than what I have been eating for the other days of my paleo experiment, so… problematic. Ever since being diagnosed with IBS, I’ve worked to accept the fact that sometimes my body rebels and I can’t waste time trying to analyze what set it off or what I’m doing wrong because sometimes there’s no answer other than the fact that genetics dealt me a shitty hand. I guess I’d been a little too hopeful that this new way of eating might entirely cure me of my digestive woes.

Regardless, the fact that I still experience some symptoms (even at a lesser degree) will mean problematic things for when I reintroduce foods… how will I know what’s irritating my gut and what’s just my gut being a natural bitch?

As for the strength progression, I’m not sure how that’s going.

Back Squat 3×5. I failed on the third set of five today. Granted, they felt easier than when I failed last week, but this still means I should reset, which is disappointing. I mean, I’m squatting well over my former one rep max, so I should be happier than I am. I guess I’m being greedy. I’m going to try resetting by 3 weeks on Sunday and see where that takes me.

Press: 3×5. Managed to return to where I was before the vacation, but it did feel a little heavy. Nervous about next week.

Strict pull-ups: These are also returning to where they were before the vacation. Sets of 7, 7, 6. I’m not actually going to “absolute failure” on these anymore… Because I’m “greasing the groove” with shorter sets of pullups throughout the day, I just take these to when they’re difficult but not truly exhausting.

Afterwards, because I was pissed off about the squats, I went a few rounds with the prowler (remember Camille?). For anyone dealing with repressed, uncontrollable rage… (no one? Just me?), quality time with this bad boy is a pretty good aggression-killer.

I actually met an interesting guest at our box today. She’s been around for a little while, but I haven’t had a chance to speak with her until this morning. She’s the daughter of two English professors so I’m actually quite familiar with her parents, and my PhD adviser was apparently once her basketball coach (small world?). Nevertheless, she got my wheels spinning again– and we know how prone I am to overthinking. Sometime midway through my MFA, I experienced a serious lapse, wasn’t sure I’d ever finish my novel, and entertained the idea of dropping out of grad school to become a physical therapist. I was… deterred by the huge amount of course prerequisites I’d have to somehow fund, then the years’ worth of observation hours I would need to even qualify to apply for switching so entirely out of my field.

Apparently this girl has done just that. During graduate school, she discovered CrossFit, became a coach at her box and realized she’d much rather become a physical therapist than continue her deskbound hours in her own field. Bravo, really. I just… struggle constantly with the duality of my world. I can’t imagine a full career where I’m deskbound all day. I’m constantly frustrated by how much of my life requires me to be isolated inside my own head for prolonged periods of time. I love interacting with people. CrossFit has cultivated in me a fascination with the potential and limitations of the human body and the dream of a job as a physical therapist, I guess, would be the opportunity to actually practice that (whereas the niche I’ve found in English has been a convenient way of me bending the field over backwards so that I can talk about talking about it… it’s a sideways methodology of sneaking my outside interests into my research).

Of course, when I came home, I pulled up all the sites for the physical therapy graduate programs I’d been secretly oggling for a while. But the thing is, I’m even deeper into my English career now. And it’s not even that I don’t enjoy my English career. I’m fascinated by the niche I’ve found and I think… I hope… I believe I can make a dent in this field. I love teaching, and I don’t think I could ever give up writing. It just… doesn’t feel complete.

So… I sat down and had the “what are you goals, Jo?” conversation with myself again. And I remembered: write, find time to write, develop and enjoy my own fitness and well-being, help others discover their ability to do so. Sounds like a lot, right? I’m greedy. There are composition teachers that are CrossFit coaches. They exist! I read about one on CrossFit Journal. So… I think I can do it. Keep pushing? I suppose on days like this, I feel like my greediness makes it impossible for me to truly excel at any one thing. Even in the CrossFit microcosm– my strength is not skyrocketing because I like moving too much. I’m doing about 25% the amount of metcon-ing I used to… but I’d probably get stronger if I gave it up completely and just devoted myself to something blunt and linear like Starting Strength. On a larger scale, I’d probably be a much better English/Rhetoric student if I didn’t waste 70% of my days on CrossFit websites, reading up on exercise and nutrition theory. I can explain the difference between Greyskull Linear Progression, CrossFit Strength Bias, CrossFit Football, Westside Conjugate, and Starting Strength. I can tell you 7 different ways to stretch your hip. But I still have to Wikipedia Deleuze everytime he appears in one of my textbooks.

But I suppose we wouldn’t be interesting, unique human beings if we were monomaniacal robots who only focused on one interest…

I am a “wandering” Jomad because where I’d like to go seems so far away and will take so long to reach that I need to remind myself to embrace the journey. I will spend more time traveling than at my destination… so I must learn to live in the moment rather than for the future.

Ah well… I’ve now spent too much time blogging– time that’s better-spent reading, writing, researching… retaining the 200+ texts I’ll be tested on for my comps exam in a couple years…

Snacks: lots of coconut flakes, various spoonfuls of almond butter, carrots and guac…

For dinner, I’m going to tackle the grassfed ground beef generously gifted to me by a friend. I intend on trying this recipe from the Lazy Caveman (I’ll admit the name of his blog appealed to me. I’m very much the lazy chef). Unfortunately, I don’t have any spaghetti squash, but I have zucchini and a julienne peeler, so I might go with that today… or I might be lazy and just eat the beef out of the pan. Ah the glamorous life of a graduate student.

Honestly, my stomach is in a better condition than it’s been in years. Also, an unexpected benefit of my attempted “Whole 14” is that the insomnia I’ve experienced regularly since moving to State College has actually disappeared. This is the first time I’ve slept through the night in years… and I’ve been doing it consistently since day 2. Also, probably related to my IBS discomfort, I had a weird relationship with hunger. I would often feel “mentally” but not physically hungry– as in I would crave food, but my body would feel too full to ingest it. That’s vanished since starting my Whole 30 journey as well.

Unfortunately, I’m still not thrilled about my recovery. I don’t know if it’s a placebo effect or if I’m screwing up something in my post-workout nutrition, but I’m just more sore than I used to be before attempting the Whole 30. Also, what confuses me more is this post from Stronger, Faster, Healthier. What’s really curious is that the folks at Whole 9 endorse SFH, and recommend their products in their book. But they also discourage the use of whey protein and insist that real food is more effective (and push the post-workout carbs, of course). SFH, however, argues against the post-workout carbohydrate and promotes (obviously) their powdered supplement (looks like mostly whey).

Anyway… since I have a health-related reason for starting this whole experiment, I will stubbornly stick with it for another 7 days until the “toxins” clear my system. On day 15, I really want to reintroduce peanuts… not all legumes, just peanuts because I’m curious if that actually irritates my system, and I’d kind of love it if I could keep peanut butter in my life. Day 16, though will be the reintroduction of the protein shake… because I want to solve this recovery mystery… also I’m sick of feeling sore. I’d gotten to a point where I could plan my days and weeks fairly well without ever feeling too beat up. Then… *knocks on wood* provided those two aren’t actually my dietary triggers, I’ll slowly experiment with other legumes, gluten, etc until I figure out what’s triggering my IBS (hopefully).

Today’s WOD:

Snatch technique. Basically, I load the bar until the lift is do-able but somewhat difficult, and do 20 reps (in a mix of triples, doubles, and singles), focusing on form rather than trying to hit a PR….

Clean technique. 10 reps… all at a relatively low weight, just working on full extension from the high hang and catching it in a full squat.

Front Squats: This is something I borrowed from an O-lift blog (the Iron Samurai)– where he recommended just loading the bar in tiny increments until you could barely squeeze out the last rep. The purpose of this is to practice lifting quickly… to really drive your weight in your heels. The weight should nearly fly off your shoulders at the beginning. However, I may drop this from my routine… I didn’t find it particularly helpful and didn’t feel like it contributed to my workout.

Then 4x500m rowing sprints.

This is a workout I’ve done before… and back in the recovery drink days, I always felt fine afterwards. But my legs have been aching all day…

I’ve found that a really easy, convenient breakfast is to mix canned seafood (today, crab… yesterday, salmon; the day before, tuna…) with an egg and fry it in a pan with some olive oil. It turns into something between an omelet and a burger patty. You can also play around with seasonings. Today, there was oregano, rosemary, and thyme. Yesterday I went with something spicier– chipotle and paprika. Also reheated leftover veggies from last night, and whipped up a quick paleo mousse for the hell of it. I didn’t use the maple syrup since it’s not “whole 30 compliant,” and I added coconut oil as well as… wait for it… mashed cauliflower. I know it sounds weird, but I had leftover, unseasoned cauliflower and it’s utterly tasteless when you blend it in, I promise. It just tastes like coconutty chocolatey goodness. … really.

Stop judging me.

I may have licked the food processor.

And the food processor blades.

I also only used 2 TBSP cocoa powder, which is why it’s a lighter color than the one on the recipe’s website. Personally, I thought it tasted plenty sweet without the maple syrup, but if some of you are trying to stay Whole 30 compliant and need the touch of sweetness, I imagine dried fruit (dates? figs?) could do the trick– or maybe some applesauce or 100% fruit juice of some kind.

I also still wanted something starchy, so I ate a 1/2 microwaved sweet potato. I’ve just accepted the fact that I’m going to eat more starches than most people on the Whole 30.

I had a pre-WOD snack of turkey + almond butter (yes, I combine deli meats with nut butters… I actually didn’t think this was strange until I started telling people this), then the gym.

Today, I managed to pull 1.75x bodyweight for 5reps for my Deadlift, but I know my form was hideous before the end, so I’m actually going to stay at this weight and repeat it next week, hopefully for better form. I did some more research on linear progressions, particularly the CrossFit football template (since I’m doing the 70’s Big S&C Program and the two are very similar). According to the CFFootball experts, most of their athletes require a reset by week 12. They recommend that you then take the lift back to where it was 3 weeks ago and start back up. Most linear progressions peter out around 20 weeks, when all the lifts stall out.

I’m actually creeping up on week 12, so it makes sense that my lifts are starting to feel a little wobbly. I hope to push this for at least another month or two. My press has already been reset once… my clean is getting wobbly, and we know I have concerns about my squat. However, I hope to still see gains on my bench. They recommend that you ride the linear progression until all lifts stall out, which I intend to do . After that, I hope to look into another strength-focused program, but probably one less linear (I mentioned before that I really like CrossFit Strength Bias).

Anyway, after the deadlifts, I did 3 sets of pull-ups, and actually participated in the box’s WOD today. It’s been a while since I’ve done a more traditional CrossFit workout and I’ve been missing them. Besides, today looked quick and like it would clock in well below my 15 minute time cap:

WOD:

50 Double-Unders

40 American Kettlebell Swings (1.5/1pd)

30 Walking Lunges with plate overhead (45lbs/25lbs)

20 Med Ball Cleans (20lbs/14lbs)

10 Squat Clean Thrusters (95lbs/65lbs).

A quick, fun chipper.

After the WOD, I repeated the post-WOD snack of a hard-boiled egg and a nuked sweet potato:

Confession: I’m a sucker for oddly-shaped produce…

Then shower and lunch. Still feeling more sore than usual. I don’t actually miss or crave the taste of my recovery shakes anymore, but I’d still like to reintroduce them after the Whole 30 to see if there were actually helping with my recovery… otherwise I can’t explain the increased achiness of my past couple of days.

Anyway… yesterday was actually a surprisingly productive flurry of writing for me. Let’s hope today I can maintain some of that momentum. Happy Monday, folks.

Hello, my name is Jo and I’m afraid of squats. Well, not the actual movement… but of being stuck beneath more than my weight in steel and rubber and being slowly, awkwardly, painfully pressed to the Earth– or worse, losing my grip on the bar and having it all clatter down my spine on the way to the ground. Of course, lifting is a mind game. The moment you get such thoughts in your head, you’ve already fucked up your lift. I need to stop.

My squat stalled for the first time today. I’m not sure whether to blame it on my experimental Whole 14 and its dietary restrictions (and the lack of my go-to recovery drink). I made it through the first two sets of five and then could not get the last one. Also, I had to bail from beneath the second set and try again… so really it went like this:

Set 1: 5 reps

Set 2: 1 rep, fail and scramble out from beneath 1.2xbodyweight as it crashes to the ground– okay, 1.17x or something like that. Wait five minutes to get my courage back up. 5 reps

Set 3: 2 reps. Lose my nerve, know I can’t get back up… rack the bar… wait three minutes… get spotters… fail after another rep and a half.

It was a bad morning for squatting. Also, something I’ve noticed (and was pointed out to me again this morning) I’ve begun taking longer and longer pauses between reps when I squat, allowing myself the opportunity to psych myself out more. However, if I go again too quickly, I usually end up failing… not sure how to fix this.

I’m also not sure if this is an actual stall in muscle growth or just my head freaking out now that my sets of 5 reps are above my former one rep max. For example, my 3 sets of 5 for the bench press today actually felt light. However, I carbloaded like crazy when I got back from the gym just in case… Again, I miss my recovery drink. I know the argument that real food is supposed to be better and more efficient, but at least my recovery drink was designed by someone who did his research and knew what he was doing (by the way, Chris Mason at At Large Nutrition is a rather nice guy and will answer questions you have about supplements/lifting/life… though I don’t guarantee his wisdom on the last one). I’ve been following the recommendation in It Starts With Food to consume a fist-sized portion of starchy carbs postworkout along with a 1/2-meal-sized portion of protein. Ah well… we’ll see what the rest of these two weeks bring. I keep reminding myself– it’s only 14 days, this experiment of mine.

Though I was pretty pissed off about the squats, I felt better after my bench presses, and then I played one of my favorite training tools: the prowler.

… no, not this prowler

this one:

… I think my blog just stopped being “family-friendly”…

I’ll give you a moment to stop oggling Camille.

…

Okay.

Now?

Okay.

My favorite thing about the prowler is that it’s idiot-proof. I know “safety” is not exactly the cool term in fitness these days– especially with a lot of CrossFitter fettishes for high-risk activities. But… for me, a lot of the enjoyment of being in-shape is… being able to utilize that fitness, which I can’t do with an injury. The prowler is an awesome strength and conditioning tool, which you can make stupid-hard, but still low-risk… I suppose the greatest risk at our box is being run over by one of the drivers that speeds through the alleyway. Also, the alleyway was still covered in loose gravel today, so avoiding all the rough spots was a little tricky. Nevertheless, I enjoyed a nice, simple finisher after my lifts. I loaded the prowler with 50lbs in plates and just pushed it back and forth 10 times… roughly 50 yards for each run, I’d guess, with just enough rest to recover my breath in between. It’s an awesome full-body beatdown. I was surprised to even feel it in my abs.

After years of stalking the periphery of the CrossFit blog community, I’ve decided to add my voice to the fray. The Basics: – I am a graduate student, writer, writing instructor, and Crossfit Coach in Central Pennsylvania – I have been CrossFitting since June 2011, when my box, CrossFit LionHeart, first ... Continue reading →